1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the completion of electronic forms. More particularly, the present invention relates to the completion of electronic forms using a flexible and dynamically expandable menu field format, while at the same time improving the efficiency of completing the form by avoiding portions of the form that are not relevant to the information being entered.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior to the widespread use of computers, data-entry forms were filled out by hand, and were equipped with specific spaces for entering specific information. For instance, a typical expense report form would have spaces for mileage, air travel, lodging, telephone charges, meals, etc. With the incorporation of computers into virtually every aspect of society, it is common to complete these same data-entry forms using a computer. The now-computerized data-entry forms, like their counterparts, often include many different blanks for users to fill out. For any given user, some form blanks may be applicable and others not. Although this is not a particular problem with paper forms, a computer user must pass through or skip over many data-entry fields that do not pertain to them, thereby wasting valuable time scrolling, paging, and otherwise positioning the lengthy form over a limited viewing space.
This is particularly troublesome in environments where the physical size of a user interface is constrained. For example, with portable devices such as hand-held computers with small displays, it is often impossible to visually present an entire form. In this case, a portion of the form is selectively displayed, forcing the user to painstakingly page or scroll through various portions of the form in order to identify the correct location for entering specific information. This exercise can result in omitting information that should be entered into the form, or erroneously entering information. A related problem is that, because the standard forms often have finite length data-entry spaces, the form may force the user to submit incomplete data because there is not enough space to enter particularly large words or phrases.
Consequently, known electronic forms are not completely adequate for some applications due to certain unsolved problems.